Members Rick Martinez

Nov 8 2009: You've both got a point. While its true that the application of any law, Talmudic or otherwise, to a particular circumstance requires some degree of what we might call 'interpretation' or well-managed reasoning, it is nevertheless Schwartz' point that the bureaucratic ills of modern society cannot be remedied by an endless propagation of both laws and the interpretation of laws such as the Talmudic model of civic action facilitates. What is needed, Schwartz seems to argue, is a virtue ethics model--a Platonic model based upon the cultivation, recognition and celebration of virtuous civic action, action done for its own sake and not for the sake of the action's compliance with any man-made law. If this Feuerstein guy acts for the sake of the Talmud, he is not an exemplar of this virtue ethics model, good as his actions may be. As for the pink t-shirt, I think he looks hideous, like he just finished beating his flat feet around an urban block and forgot to change out of his sweats.